Since 1 September 2024, the European Court of Justice has been receiving the first requests for preliminary rulings on VAT for decision.

At the beginning of last month, a far-reaching amendment to the Statute of the Court of Justice of the EU came into force.  It means that in future, some of the powers of the Court of Justice to give preliminary rulings will be transferred to the General Court in relation to the following six areas of law: the common system of VAT; excise duties; the Customs Code; compensation and assistance to air passengers and passengers in the event of denied boarding/delay or cancellation of transport services; the tariff classification of goods and trading in greenhouse gas emission allowances (EU ETS).

In future, all requests for preliminary rulings must be submitted to the Court of Justice so that it can check whether the request falls exclusively within one or more of the specific subject areas defined above and can therefore be assigned to the General Court. In the interests of legal certainty and transparency, it will state the reasons for its decision. Also for reasons of transparency, all requests for preliminary rulings will now be communicated to the European Parliament, the Council of the EU and the European Central Bank. This should enable them to better assess whether they have a particular interest in legal protection and may wish to intervene in the proceedings.

The change to the statutes is also intended to reorganise the appeal procedure against decisions of the court. The so-called authorisation procedure will be extended to other areas in which an upstream second technical examination has already taken place, for example by the respective Boards of Appeal of the EU supervisory authorities for banks, insurance companies or securities (EBA, ESMA, EIOPA). As a result, the Court of Justice should be able to concentrate on appeals that raise important legal issues.

The aim of this reform is to reduce the workload of the Court of Justice in the area of preliminary rulings and the length of its proceedings. The aim is to guarantee and speed up the legal protection system in the application and interpretation of the EU treaties. A functioning legal system and speedy proceedings are a location factor and help to ensure legal peace between economic operators.

Source: Bericht aus Brüssel Nr. 25/2024

Press release on the amendment to the Articles of Association (German language)